


Jimmy Kimmel Told Us to Give Our Kids Terrible Presents

by myglassesaredirty



Category: Left Behind - Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye, Left Behind: the Kids
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Halloween, I wrote this all today, Inspired by Real Events, Jimmy Kimmel - Freeform, Poverty, Real Life, Thanksgiving, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic, Young Parents, and his stupid challenges, the child characters are not technically mine but that's how character tagging goes, what is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/pseuds/myglassesaredirty
Summary: Judd and Vicki became parents at the tender ages of fifteen and sixteen and a half, respectively. Now, six and a half years later, they still struggle to do some of the most basic things, but they're trying.They're trying.
Relationships: Judd Thompson Jr. & Child Character(s), Judd Thompson Jr./Vicki Byrne, Vicki Byrne & Child Character(s)
Comments: 2





	Jimmy Kimmel Told Us to Give Our Kids Terrible Presents

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by that actual challenge Jimmy Kimmel used to do on his show. Idk if there was an actual reason he stopped doing it or not, but Jesus, those kids were so entitled. This is a fix-it fic for real life, y'all.

They used to live in their own apartment. It was cramped, of course it was, it had been built for two people and five occupied it, all of whom were under twenty-three years old, and there was little space, little to work with, and they hadn’t been able to make payments on their rent or utilities because Judd could only afford, some nights, to pick up some food for the kids, and Vicki tried to work when she needed to, but it was hard when they couldn’t afford daycare.

In short, they had been evicted.

Bruce refused to let them be homeless, refused to let them move into a shack that would probably boast health issues for the kids later on, so he rearranged his home for the small Thompson clan, asked around to see if anyone could put them up if necessary.

No one was all too willing to help out a twenty-three year-old father and a twenty-one year-old mother of three.

Summer came, and Judd took three jobs. Vicki worked two part-time jobs with Mrs. Barnes assuring her that the kids would be fine for the day, and together, Vicki and Judd pooled together enough money to find a cheaper apartment. It was still small, still two bedrooms, but only one bathroom that could easily prove problematic for five people. It didn’t matter; it was all they could afford, and Judd and Vicki both felt like they had outstayed their welcome.

For the first three weeks in that apartment, Judd and Vicki slept on the cold floor, huddling close under the thinnest blanket they had while they set up the kids’ room with one mattress and a few larger blankets, and they tucked their kids in, they kissed their heads and said goodnight, and as Judd and Vicki slipped back to their room, Vicki bit back a sob and said, “I just wish they could each have their own bed.”

“Maybe one day,” Judd said, kissing her hair.

Judd knew enough restaurateurs around Mount Prospect and Chicago to beg for any leftover food that they were planning on throwing out. Some of them agreed and would give him the leftovers, the scraps that were sometimes too hard to eat, but he would bring the food back to Vicki and they would sort through what they could give to their kids.

Kindergarten was the best thing that ever happened to those kids.

If nothing else, they got a free meal five days a week, and Vicki could work part-time long enough to contribute to getting them another meal the other two days. With Judd’s job and Bruce’s charity, they were able to get their kids three meals a day, and Judd and Vicki generally got to have three meals a day as well.

At night, Vicki would let the triplets stay up late and she would help them with their coloring and their numbers and counting, and sometimes, Judd would be back from work by then, but other times, he wasn’t, and on the nights when he wasn’t home by eight, Vicki told her kids that Daddy would be home soon and he would be sad that he missed them, but it would be better for all of them if they just went to bed. And she would clean up the crayons and the pieces of paper and she would stack the backpacks by the door and she would cry because her kids only had a few hand-me-down clothes, she knew they were made fun of by the other kindergartners, and it was always  _ then _ that Judd slipped back home, and he would wrap her in his arms and he would let her cry.

Halloween came, and it was the only time the triplets would get candy for the entire year, minus their trips to Grampa Bruce’s house, so Judd picked up the old costumes Bruce still had in storage, and Vicki pinned them so that they would fit – Summer was Rey from Star Wars, Hayden was Han Solo, and Cole insisted that he was Obi Wan-Kenobi. Vicki didn’t quite know the difference. Judd took Lionel’s leather jacket and dressed up as Luke Skywalker, and Ryan loaned him his old lightsaber, and the kids absolutely loved it, with their daddy holding their hands or carrying one of them on his shoulders. No one made fun of them for their costumes. No one made fun of them for using pillowcases as bags. It was just a time when they were kids, and when Judd and Vicki didn’t have to worry about money.

They stayed out late on Halloween, far later than what Vicki would usually allow, but they all filled their bags to the brim, and the kids rationed their candy from then on – it was two candies a day, one in the morning, one after dinner, and they never once broke that rule.

Thanksgiving came, and Bruce absolutely  _ insisted _ that Judd and Vicki bring the triplets, and they could have Thanksgiving all of them together. Mrs. Barnes pulled Vicki aside as Vicki helped to make the Thanksgiving feast and said that they would box up the leftovers for her and Judd to take home, and Vicki burst into tears.

Zack was Bruce’s youngest, he had only been five when the triplets were born, but when Hayden, Cole, and Summer were being entertained by Danny, Zack grabbed Judd’s wrist and pulled him out to the garage. “Here,” he said, opening the fridge. “You can have all of these.”

Two cartons of sodas, one of coke and one of sprite, and Judd had to blink back the tears and hug Zack despite his protests.

Hayden, Cole, and Summer had never really known what the sensation of being full was, they usually only ate one helping of food because that was all there was, they didn’t know what leftovers were, but Mrs. Barnes and Bruce encouraged them all to go and get more food as they wanted it, and it was four helpings later when Cole finally gave up and tossed his fork onto the plate.

Vicki worried at first, worried that there would only be a few leftovers for the kids, but Mrs. Barnes saw her fear and covered her hand with her own and said, “Oh, honey, we’ve made enough food to feed an army, and it’s all yours.”

Vicki licked her lips and glanced at Judd. “I don’t think we have enough room in our fridge for all that, Mrs. Barnes.”

Judd nodded. “It’s a small fridge. A literal minifridge.”

Mrs. Barnes smiled. “Then we’ll freeze what you can’t fit, and Judd, you can pick it up when it’s needed. I’m not letting any grandchildren of mine miss out on the greatest leftovers of all time.”

Vicki’s parents refused charity, and it ended with them in a trailer park. Judd had wanted to refuse charity, when this first began, but she reminded him what life was like when that happened, she reminded him about her father’s relapse, about the days she would go without eating a single crumb because it was summer and her dad didn’t care, and she told him that it was something people generally didn’t escape from.

So this, this offer of charity, was now accepted for what it was – an act of love.

Those leftovers lasted them until Christmas.

Judd and Vicki thought that they would be able to pool together enough money to buy the triplets one nice toy each, but they did not know how bad inflation had gotten, they didn’t know that the economy was still recovering from the pandemic of years past, they didn’t know that fifty extra dollars wouldn’t be able to buy them much, not if they also wanted to treat the kids to some fast food, and food would always take priority over toys.

Judd licked his lips. “We could go to McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A or Wendy’s and order a kid’s meal. They’ll get a toy with that.”

“Maybe,” Vicki said. “Are you working tonight?”

He shook his head. “Test tomorrow. I’m working all day Saturday. I know the kids wanted to go ice skating, but I don’t think we’ll be able to make it.”

She put her hand on his shoulder. “Lionel will be happy to take them, if you’d let him.”

Judd sighed. “Give him a call, right? I just– we can’t keep disappointing our kids, Vick.”

On Friday night, they relocated to Bruce’s house, both so they could pick up more leftovers and so that the triplets could watch a movie in one room while the “adults” all watched Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel in the other room.

Jimmy Fallon was a rerun, so Bruce switched the channel to Jimmy Kimmel.

“I did this a long time ago – got a lot of flack for it – but seeing as how a new generation was spawned as a result of COVID-19, and they’re now old enough to experience this, I decided to bring this back,” Jimmy Kimmel said on tv. “Give your kids a terrible gift a few weeks before Christmas, video their reactions, and post them on YouTube with the title  **Jimmy Kimmel Told Us to Give Our Kids Terrible Gifts.** We love making fun of your kids!”

Vicki rolled her eyes and snuggled into Judd’s chest. “Entitled little bastards,” she murmured just quietly enough that Bruce and his wife wouldn’t be able to hear.

Judd snorted.

The next evening, Judd stumbled into the Barnes’ home after work, exhausted, and he said, “Vick, we have enough money to get them gifts. Not good toys, but we can get them socks or food or clothes or even a small book from a used bookstore.”

Vicki thought it was cute, how his first thought after a sixteen hour workday was his children. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his nose. “Well, my love, what do you suggest?”

The next weekend, Judd and Vicki were back at the Barnes’ with their three kids, and they left them in Bruce’s care while they went to the grocery store. They grabbed the only coloring book off the shelf, they took a couple of plain t-shirts from the racks, and they grabbed a box of Oreos, and their total was just enough, they could just afford it.

When they got back to Bruce’s house, they disappeared into the garage and wrapped the presents, and they  _ had _ planned to wait until Christmas, but they both knew that celebrating Jesus’ birthday didn’t have to always be on December 25, and besides, Bruce would have good presents for his own kids. Judd and Vicki didn’t want the triplets to compare.

So they gathered the three of them into Bruce’s living room and passed out the presents.

Hayden got the pink shirt because it was the one that fit him, Cole got the green one because that size fit him better than the pink one did, and since neither shirts fit Summer, since she was too small, she got the coloring book, and it didn’t  _ matter _ to any of them that they didn’t get their favorite color or their favorite thing – Hayden held his shirt close to his chest and profusely thanked his parents, offering to let Summer wear it when he outgrew it, and Summer held her coloring book high in the air and said that they could all share, and Cole told his two younger siblings that they could have his shirt when he was done with it. When they opened the package of Oreos, Summer immediately told her brothers that each one of them would get a row of Oreos, and like their candy, they could only have two a day.

Lizzie filmed this present exchange because Lizzie filmed everything, and she asked Judd and Vicki if she could upload it to YouTube under that challenge Jimmy Kimmel mentioned, and they said sure because they weren’t really thinking, all they could see was their children, and they would do anything for their children.

(Oh, yeah: their video went viral, and the triplets were considered “the most well-behaved and best raised kids in this whole damn video Jesus Christ so many parents suck now.”)

Nobody had to know what their situation was, only that Judd and Vicki loved their kids more than the entire world.

They did get their toys in the end: Judd and Vicki took the kids to Chick-fil-A as soon as kindergarten released for winter break, and they ordered the kids meals, and they got a toy each. Bruce donated blankets and mattresses, courtesy of the church, an anonymous donor, and they had covers for all of their kids and a mattress for themselves, too.

Vicki leaned into Judd’s side. “Good,” she said, glancing up at him. “You weren’t doing your job in warming me up.”

He smirked and dipped his head low. “Oh, I’ll warm you up, alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below or go to my tumblr, @ my-glasses-are-dirty, and tell me what you think!


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